Timisoara-Arad motorway contract might be terminated

Construction works at the Timisoara-Arad motorway are nine months behind schedule, so the contract might be terminated, Transports Minister Radu Berceanu said yesterday. As if that were not enough, the constructor also seeks to change some of the technical solutions for the project. "Both portions of the motorway are behind schedule.

The Arad bypass, nine months, and this stretch, six months. And there is yet another problem that needs to be dealt with once and for all. Bidder put tender offers that are quite low, so that they win. Road companies with a long record, yet in Spain, Portugal, put offers. However, in Romania they have only 13 employees, no equipment, no hired force, yet, they present themselves with their achievements there, 3,000 kilometres. And this is how companies with a long activity record win the tenders and then they subcontract everything," Mediafax quoted Berceanu as saying.

He also said companies 'play for time,' asking for technical solutions to get changed. "Having won the tender, they begin to play for time, so they can hike the price. This is what happened in this case too, to a further extent in Arad, to a lesser, here, in Timis. They call for technical solutions, stipulated by a bloated documentation, to be changed," Berceanu explained, who visited the Timisoara ring road construction site yesterday.

While at Calafat recently, Berceanu said the ministry he is in charge of is set to terminate the contract concluded with Spanish company FCC Construction over the construction of the Timisoara-Arad segment on account of stagnant work. The motorway segment costs a whooping EUR 270 M, including construction of the Arad beltway. The tender has been won by Spanish company FCC and Italy's Astaldi.

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